Handling of coils of wire or the like



Filed om. 9, msm

mm W, Wwf MQMOFEGAN HANDLING OIF COLS OFv WIRE OR THE LIKE Filed Oct. 9, 1928 2 Sheetsh-Shee Patented .dune ld, ldd@ MYLES MORGAN, OF WOB/OESTE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO MORGAN CONSTRUC- TIOM COMPNY, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION Olli' MIASSALCHU- entre Application led October 9, 1928.

The presentinvention relates to the handling of coils or bundlesoi wire, or like objects such as tires, hoops, etc. The invention resides particularly in an improved means d and method of transferring a succession of such ring-shaped bundles or articles, as moved flatwise on a conveyor or the like, to a series of suspension hooks whereon the individual bundles are impaled, for transpor- 1Q tation to any desired point.

Heretofore, this'trans'ition from a condition of latwise support to a condition of suspension or hanging support has involved considerable labor and attention from sevlh eral operators, in the operations of lifting the bundles and impaling them on the hooks and 'in the manipulation of the hooks to receive the bundles,-all attended, particularly in the case of coiled wire or rods, with more or less disturbance and distortion of the several convolutions of the coil structure. By my invention, the necessity for manual attention to the coils or bundles at the point of their transfer to the hooks is entirely eliminated; a single operator, stationed at a post remote from the transfer point, is enabled, by the invention, to eect the transfer to the hooks of the coils or1bundles from a plurality of tlat conveyors,all by the simple manipulation of conveniently disposed operating levers under his' control, and the transfers .occurring with a minimum disturbance of the coil structures.' Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description thereof, reference being had in this connection to the accompanying drawings, wherein- Fig. l is a view in side elevation, showing my' invention as applied to the transfer. of coils trom a flat conveyor to a hook carrier. Figs. 2 and 3 are fragmentary detail views showing the transferring devices in certain positions that they assume .in their cycle of operations.

Lilie reference characters refer to like parts in the-diderent g'ures.

Referring tiret to Fig. l, l have illustrated conventionally therein the outer end 5@ or a conveyor et the type adapted ior aanname or coins or wlan on rnnnrnn Serial No. 311,392.

chain 4, near the outer end ot the conveyor I passingr over a sprocket wheel 5 and thereafter taking a more or less 'sharp downward i inclination, in conformity with the slope of the floor section lrat the extreme outer end @5 of the conveyor. at said cxtreme outer end the chain t passes around the sprocket wheel y6 from which its lower course returns in the usual manner, to the other end of the conveyor adjacent the reeling devices whereon the coils a, a are formed. When a coil or bundle a has been carried over the peak of the conveyor and onto the downwardly slopiupr iloor section l', its tendency is to slide forward by gravity, so that the rear portion of its inner periphery engages the moving dog,r 3, whereby, upon discharge from the conveyor into the position indicated at a in Fig. l, the dog 3 in passing around the sprocket 6 is carried clear of the coil or au bundle so deposited in the positional. i The above described conveyor mechanism and operation, of and by itself, forms no part oit the present invention, being old and well lrnown in the art.

As shown in Fig. l, the support for the coil or bundle in its rearwardly inclined position a', is afforded by a seat or cradle, which consists essentially of two elements or members, namely a bottom rest 7, at a slight in- 9U l clination from the horizontal, against which seats a portion of the outer periphery of the bundle, and a baclr rest 8, at a slight inclination from the vertical, against which rests .that surface of the bundle which formerly t5 series of hooks 13; said hooks, of which one f only is shown, depend from a hook carrier 14' in edect, a notch wherein the bundle is deposited. Said seat or cradle 7, 8 is'supported for swinging movement on a trunnion 9 provided by a stationary base 10, the connection to said trunnion being made by va suitable downward extension 11 of the back rest 8. The trunnioned seat or cradle is positioned and maintained in its bundle-receiving position of Fig. 1 by the engage ment of its back rest portion 8 with a iXed stop surface 12 provided by the framework at the outerend ot the iiat conveyor. Said trunnioned seat or cradle is operable in the manner hereinafter described to transfer each bundlev deposited therein to one of a that runs ona suitable track 15 extending transversely of the direction of movement of the bundles on the conveyor, or row 'of conveyors, as the case may be.

As shown in F ig. 1, provision is made for swinging the seat or cradle 7, 8 outwardly,

about its trunnion 9, to carry the coil or bundle a toward a hook 13, whenever the operator, stationed in a pulpit 16, observes that such va hook on the carrier 14 has .trav-1 jelled into a position where it is opposite the bundle a. To this end, a lever arm 17 ex tending from the lower end of the seat or cradle, beyond the trunnion 9, is connected by a link 18' to one arm of a bell crank lever 19 pivoted at a lixed. point 20. The other arm of said bell crank lever 19 has a link connection 21 to an operating lever 22 in the pulpit y 116, and it will' be seen that when the lever-22 is rocked counterclockwise, the `connecting links and levers will cause the seat or cradle 7, 8 to swing outwardly from the conveyor 'toward the hook 18, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

Such movement, taking the bundle or coil from the position a to the position a requires the cradle to travel through a considerable aref-and a return movement through the same are being necessary, 1t will be seen that the coil or bundle, a'sthus incompletely transferred to the hook 13, stands directly in the return path of the bottom rest portion 7 of said cradle, it the latter is allowed to mainf back rest portion 8. However, the invention, said bottom rest portion made automatically collapsible upon the im-l tain its' normal right-angled relation to the according to palement ofthe coil or bundle on hook 13, so that as soon as position a is reached. the support of the coil or bundle by the cradle is i completely withdrawn, allowing said coil or bundleto drop by gravity into the position a", Fig. 3. This takes place as the result of a special construction of the seat 01' cradle,

, The bottom rest portion 7, instead of be.

ing rigid with the back rest portion 8, has a pivotal connection thereto at the point 28. Therefore, in order to maintain the normal Aiff-eases substantially right-angled relation between bottom restand back rest, the ormervrnust be supported at' its free or outer end. Such support, as here shown, takes` thev form of a toggle lever, consisting of the parts 24 and' 25, thev part 24 4'being pivotally connected at 26 to the bottom-'rest 7, andthe art 25 being aid parts 24 journalled on the trunnion 9. l and 25 are connected pivotally at their opposing ends 'by a pini-27, and one of said parts (the part 25) has-.a portion 28"ov erlapping the edge of the other part, to prevent the 'collapse of the toggle, except as the part 24 may fold counterclockwise toward the part 25. In-the normal coil-receiving position of the cradle, the toggle 24, 25 is in its extended position (Fig. 1) and is prevented' from breaking or collapsing by the fact that the thrust from bottom rest 7` holds the partsslightly beyond dead center, in the direction away from portion 28. lVhen the lever 22 is operated to carry the cradleinto the position shown in Fig. 2, part 25 offthe'toggle, at the Very end of this movement,f'is thrust forcibly againstI a stop 29 on base 10, thereby thrust.- ing the pivot point 27 through the dead center position and allowing the toggle to collapse completely under the weight of the I bottom rest'7 and the coilor bundle carried thereon, as shown in Fig. 3. By thus autoy matically'collapsing the bottom rest 7 of the cradle, the coil or bundle is left free-to drop by gravity onto the hook, and the return movement of the cradle to coil-receiving position. takes place in the absence of any contact with, vor disarrangement of, the suspended coil by the collapsed bottom rest 7.I Said.

return movement, as here shown, is eiected by the action of a spring 30, operating through a-rod 31 on the lever arm 17; said spring, normally occupying the extended position shown in Fig. 1, is compressed, as shown in Fig. 2, when the operating lever 22 is thrust counterclockwise to swing the cradle 7, 8, and when said operating lever 22 is re-v leased, .the compressed spring 30 becomes effective to return the parts to'normal position. On this return movement, the toggle part 25 bears against a spring-cushioned stop 32 carried by the base 10 and thus, as the cradle swings clockwise, the toggle part 24 is gradually swung into alinement with the V2. In apparatus ofthe class described, the combination with a movable coil-receiving member ada ted for the support of each suc cessive coil y its lowermost edge, ofa`V conveyor providing coil-suspending projections, means for moving said member' to hook4 a coil over one of said projections, and means responsive'to said movement for collapsing said member, thereby to -leavethe coil susJ pended from the projection.

3. In apparatus of the classdescribed, means for transferring successive coils or an- .nuli from a fiat conveyor to a hook carrier, said meanscomprising' a carriage whereon hooks for the suspension therefrom of sucv'cessively delivered coils or other annuli, of a 'cradlewhereon successive coils from a flat conveyor are deposited, said cradle roviding a bottom rest vfor the lower edge oP each coil to support the latter in a substantially vertical position, and means for collapsing said bottom rest upon that movement of said cradle which hangs a coil so supported over onel of said hooks, thereby to permit the return of said cradle `to coil-receiving position without listlurbance of the coil so transferred to a ioo r. I

The combination with a .conveyor for the iia'tivise support and movement of a succession of coils or other annuli, of a .mechanism for transferring Vthe support of each coil to a suspension h ook,said,mechanism comprising a movable member adapted in coil-receiving position to support each coil by its lowermost edge in a substantially vertical position, and means responsive to that movement of said member which carries said coil toward a hook for withdrawing said 'edgewise support, therebyallowing the coil to drop, unirn eded, upon'said hook.

6. The com ination witha conveyor for the iiatwise'support and movement of a succession of coils or other annuli, of a mechanism for transferrin' the support of each coil 'of said member which carries said coil toward v a hook for Vwithdrawing said edgewise support, thereby allowing the coil to drop, un-

impeded, upon said hook, and means respon- 7. In apparatus of the class described, for. the transfer of successive coils .from a fiat transfer member providing, in coil-receiving.

position, a bottom` rest for the edgewise support of the coil, a toggle joint for the support of saidbottom rest in its operative position and means for collapsing said toggle joint on the movement of said transfer mem- Y ber to coilfdiscllarging position, thereby to Vfree the coil as it is carried onto one of the hooks of said hook carrier.

8. In a paratus of the class described, for the transfP veyor to a hook carrier, comprising a trans fer member pl'oviding, in coil-receiving position, a bottom rest for theed ewse supportof the coil, a toggle joint orthe support of said bottom'rest in its operative position, means forcollapsing said toggle joint on the movement of.' said transfer member to coil-discharging position and means for restoring said toggle joint to distended posi- Aconveyor to a hook carrier, comprising a er of successive coils from a flat contion -on the return of said transfer member to coil-receiving osition. l, i

9. Apparatus or transferring coiled lmateriall from a flat conveyor to a' hook carrier, comprising a cradle to receive successive coils from said conveyor, said cradle providing a bottom rest for the edge of said coil, a' toggle joint normally fholding said bottom support in operative position, and means' responsive to relative approaching movement between said cradle and said hook carrier, in the act of impaling a coil in said cradle upon a hook of said carrier, for collapsing said, toggle joint, thereby freeing said coil of its edgewise support by said bottom rest, and transferring its support'to said hook. Y

Dated this 26th day of September, 1928.

MYLES MORGAN.

sive to the return movement of said member to coil-receivlngposltlon for restorlng said.

edgewise support.

les 

